FORT BENNING, Ga., (Sept. 24, 2014) -- Jews around the world begin to celebrate and observe the High Holidays today. These Days of Awe are Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
Jewish tradition teaches that we are entering the New Year 5775, which begins according to the secular calendar at sunset Sept. 24. The dates of these important holidays appear to vary from year to year, but are always during the fall months. The reason for variable dates is tied to the difference between the lunar calendar on which the Hebrew calendar is based and the solar calendar.
For Jews, religious holidays, days of obligation, days commemorating the passing of loved ones and other important events are based on a Hebrew calendar. That calendar is essentially a lunar calendar.
However, to accommodate certain important holidays so they are celebrated in the correct season, adjustments are made to the calendar to synchronize it with the solar calendar that is universally used and which fixes days and dates according to the cycle of the sun and is unchanging-except for leap years every four years. As a result, a lunar month is added to the Hebrew calendar twice in a seven-year period.
You may wonder why the Jewish New Year is a two-day celebration and not just one day? After all, most cultures celebrate a single day to mark the New Year holiday.
The reason links back to the new moon. When the Temple of Jerusalem was still standing, more than 2000 years ago, certain individuals were designated to observe the evening skies and to report precisely when the new moon appeared. These observers - runners, when witnessing the appearance of the new moon, would testify to that fact before the legal authorities who, in turn, publicly declared the beginning of the New Year. During the first century of the Common Era prior to the destruction of the Temple in the year 70, there was so much political upheaval that the new moon reporting system fell apart. To guarantee there was no doubt when the New Year was celebrated, a two-day observance was instituted and remains in force to this day.
This raises another question. If in ancient times there was a doubt to when the new moon appeared, today with our modern technology, why do we still have a two-day observance? As Tevye said in Fiddler on the Roof, "Tradition," when a community has been doing things for 2000 years, it is hard to make changes.
And so here we are, looking to the evening of Sept. 24, as the start of the Year 5775. Orthodox and Conservative Jews begin their observance of the New Year then and continue for two more days, Sept. 25 and 26. Reform Jews celebrate only one day, Sept. 25.
According to tradition, on Rosh Hashanah God determines the fate of every human being for the year ahead and "inscribes" them in the Book of Life.
Nine days after the start of the New Year, on the 10th day of the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar, Yom Kippur begins. Yom Kippur, known as the Day of Atonement, is the very most significant and important holiday of the year for Jews. It is the holiest day of the year for Jews for it is on that day that God makes his ultimate judgment and "seals" the Book of Life.
This year Yom Kippur begins on the evening Oct. 3 and ends at sundown the following day with a ceremonial community or family breaking of the fast. From start to conclusion, Yom Kippur is a fasting day; no eating, no drinking. It is a day spent in prayer and introspection and penitence.
Each and every human being examines his or her conduct, behavior, and relationships, not only between him or her and God, but between him and her and his or her fellow man. During his or her introspection and prayer one publicly and privately confesses sins for wrongs or iniquities which may have been committed and prays for forgiveness and that any negative inscription in the Book of Life may be changed, modified or altered before the Book of Life is sealed.
This year, services on post will be at the Regimental Chapel on Sand Hill. Retired Army Chaplain (Col.) Ken Leinwand will lead the service.
ROSH HASHANAH
Sept. 24, 7:30-8:30 p.m., Evening Service
Sept. 25, 10 a.m.-noon, Morning worship and Torah study
Sept. 26, 10 a.m.-noon, Morning worship service
Sept. 26, 7:30-8:30 p.m., Shabbat evening service
Sept. 27, 10 a.m.-noon, Shabbat worship service
Sept. 28, 8 to 10 a.m., Weekly worship service-training troops
YOM KIPPUR
Oct. 3, 7:30-9 p.m., Evening service - Kol Nidre
Oct. 4, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Yom Kippur morning service
Oct. 4, 5- 6:30 p.m., Afternoon service -Yiskor
Oct. 4, 6:30-7 p.m., Evening service- Neilah
Oct. 4, 7:30-9 p.m., Community breakfast
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